Networking supplier Nortel and conditional access and interactive TV software vendor NDS have agreed to collaborate on providing IPTV services for the European market.
Under the agreement, announced Monday at the IPTV World Forum in London, Toronto-based Nortel has signed a global reseller and joint marketing agreement with UK-based NDS, which currently provides software to over 50 million digital set-tops worldwide. The two companies say they will also work together to facilitate the integration of Nortel's voice and multimedia features into the TV environment by integrating them with NDS' MediaHighway(2) middleware. Planned features include caller ID, call handling, address book, click-to-dial, call-logs, IM messaging and other IP-based communication services.
"We chose NDS because it is a leader in the digital broadcast industry and has a proven middleware product that is well suited for IPTV communications integration," said George Riedel, chief strategy officer, Nortel, in a statement. "Working together we can deliver a new set of exciting services which blend TV entertainment with voice and multimedia services."
